Jobs Summit 2018

South Africa hosted the Jobs Summit on 4 and 5 October 2018, at Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

The Presidential Jobs Summit, under the auspices of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC), has delivered a landmark Framework Agreement consisting of high-impact actions to drive job creation, job retention and economic growth. The agreement is an enabler for the creation of an estimated 275,000 jobs annually.

The Framework Agreement commits Social Partners to undertake concrete steps to avoid retrenchment and support companies in distress. This will be coupled with a Rapid Response Team of experts to assist struggling businesses. In addition, we have agreed that the Training Layoff Scheme will be immediately revived and improved to mitigate job losses.

The Jobs Summit was a milestone set by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2018 State of the Nation Address to ease the serious unemployment challenge facing the country. Social Partners came up with a Framework Agreement, which is the culmination of collaborative effort that explored solutions for creating and retaining jobs, especially for the youth. Rigorous negotiations and alignment of efforts have led to real commitments by all sectors.

Social partners have signed the historic Framework Agreement, and will now implement the agreed actions in their respective sectors and report back to the President on an on-going basis. All actions will be tracked through a monitoring framework and quarterly reports on progress will be provided to the President to ensure that they have real impact.